Beyond Binkies, Code and Make-Believe

New Year's Brownies

The fudge is gone, the bark is gone along with the snow, peppermints and gingerbread.  What to do about New Year's?  We aren't big drinkers.  I've returned to the ranks of amateur so after two glasses of wine, it's not so pretty - but my friends prime me on purpose because they find me quite entertaining; imagine that.

I needed some treat for tonight and Costco came to the rescue. We had a couple of boxes of brownie mix left over from some scouting event and decided to put them to good use tonight.

Burn After Reading - hmmm.

We finally got around to seeing, "Burn After Reading."  We enjoyed it, but were disappointed that it either wasn't more suspenseful or funnier.  Brad Pitt was the best, but they took care of that a bit early.

Norman Rockwell has nothing on Raleigh West

I had the pleasure of delivering the last of my Christmas gifts this morning.  There were only three cars on the streets.  As I walked through our streets I saw a 40' tree in a prominent location lit up all the way to the top.  How kind of them to hire the "guy" to shinny up the ladder to light that tree each year.  It was beautiful with the manger scene below.

Sugarplums are teeny tiny

I was informed that Sugar Plums are VERY tiny.  They are as tiny as germs and are little people and very tiny.  They are really tiny.  Guess why?  You know why...

How else could they dance in your head?

This is the logic of a near-four-year-old.  He really wanted us to know that your brain doesn't leave much room so they have to be as small as germs so they have room to dance.  He revised it a bit that they are tiny pieces of candy with legs - but still the size of germs.

We have wood.

In the midst of the snow, wood arrived today and was dumped in the driveway. This is not an unusual occurrence in our area or any area with regular snow and cold winters.  The additional challenge today was that there was already snow on the ground. 

Hers is now flat for the season.

Recently, in preparation for the joyous season, I took my son to the local Catholic book/gift store by the church.  We picked up some items, ornaments and a beautiful advent calendar with the Holy Family, glitter and all.  It was $6 (or close to that).  I learned that they should only be about $2 and have CHOCOLATE in them.  This was news to me.  I'd never had one with anything but little doors to various things.

Miracle in Toyland - the ODDEST special ever

This was the ODDEST Christmas special ever.  This is further proof that free isn't always good.  We were desperate for some holiday show that wasn't too long tonight.  We ran through On-Demand, family/musicals category and saw the listing for an animated show about a boy who has a father in the military who leaves on Christmas Eve day and a special thing happens in a toy store.  Nice, huh?

We are decorated.

Time for fudge baking.  The house is decorated, the crates are back in the garage.  Time to make fudge, cookies and finish the Christmas cards.

We took our annual trip to Sleighbells in Sherwood on Thursday.  It was a bit late in the day and I was snackless. BAD idea.  Yet, when faced with the option to return on Saturday, the children pulled it together quickly and found trees within minutes.  We have one inside and a small one in the courtyard greeting neighbors and the postman.  We spent two days decorating the tree.  It's pretty full and we've run out of hooks.  Tip:  hooks on sale aren't always good hooks.  Make sure they are they shorter, thicker ones.  They cost more, but fewer ornaments will be likely to plunge off the tree in the middle of the night.